


Chances

by lucyrne (theungenue)



Category: Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blind Date, F/M, First Dates, Online Dating, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-19
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:35:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22795654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theungenue/pseuds/lucyrne
Summary: Varric waits alone at a bar, certain that the blind date he met online has stood him up. Then Bethany Hawke appears.
Relationships: Bethany Hawke/Varric Tethras
Comments: 10
Kudos: 15





	Chances

**Author's Note:**

> An unexpected fill for the following prompt: "I’m going to save you from the terrible date you’re having." Turns out, they save each other.

Varric Tethras stared at the overpriced beer foaming in the bottom of his glass and seriously considered going home.

Thirty minutes he had sat at this bougie Hightown bar. Thirty minutes he had furtively sipped his drink, searching for a woman in a blue dress. Thirty minutes gone by, and the lady had yet to show.

He set down his glass and took his phone out of his pocket to view his message history.

> LadyS910: Are you nervous?
> 
> LadyS910: I’m nervous. I’ve never met up with someone like this before. What if it goes badly?
> 
> V4Vasectomy: there’s a possibility we won’t click, but there’s also a possibility we will.
> 
> V4Vasectomy: i wouldn’t have agreed to meet if i didn’t like my chances
> 
> V4Vasectomy: :wink:
> 
> LadyS910: :blush:
> 
> LadyS910: I’m heading out soon. See you there! xx
> 
> V4Vasectomy: see you soon x

Varric reread the exchange a few times, wondering if he ought to message her. Perhaps LadyS910’s nerves got the better of her and she bailed. Maybe she never intended to come. Or she spotted him waiting and realized he wasn’t her type. Served him right for silencing his inner cynic and entertaining a flirtation with a woman he had never met, whose name he didn’t even know. Anonymous dating apps were for desperate suckers, and by coming to this swanky bar tonight, sucking down a drink with no company but his own, Varric had proven himself to be one of them.

LadyS910 had always struck him as a little too good to be true. Too sweet, too funny, too charming. The only reason Varric’s natural skepticism hadn’t discouraged him entirely was that she had never sent him any photos or discussed money. Catfishers tended to have a model’s gorgeous selfie locked and loaded for luring dumb, lonely men into their webs, and once the trap was set, they bled their victims’ bank accounts dry before vanishing into the ether. LadyS910 did not fit that narrative, and the longer they chatted and flirted, the more his heart softened to the idea that she might be legit.

Welp. So much for that.

Whoever LadyS910 was, Varric now knew for sure that online dating was a crock of bullshit. Time to retreat back into his impenetrable fortress of confirmed bachelordom, where neither sweet internet women nor his own ill-advised romantic whimsy could hurt him.

He began to draft a new message to send her, but before Varric could finish his text, someone slammed a clutch purse on the bar counter beside him.

It was Bethany Hawke, dressed in a little teal number beneath a fitted leather jacket. Varric felt so shocked to see her, he didn’t even manage a ‘hello’ before she started speaking at a hundred miles a minute.

“Varric! You mind if I stand beside you for a moment?” Bethany whirled around and leaned against the bar, propping her elbows upon the counter as she scanned the room. “I’m supposed to meet someone, but I’m terribly late. I hope he hasn’t left. Have you seen any men sitting alone?”

He pivoted in his barstool to look around as well. “I didn’t notice because I wasn’t really looking. Don’t see any now, though.”

“ _Shit_.”

“You try calling him?”

Bethany pinked and turned quickly back to the bar. “I don’t have his number. I—we—” She glanced down with a small laugh, tucking a lock of black hair behind her ear. “We’re supposed to meet for the first time tonight,” she said in a low voice, slowly raising her glittering eyes to meet his. Her lips twisted into a sorrowful simper. “Kirkwall’s rush hour traffic had other ideas. Just my luck. I finally meet somebody I like and I can’t even make it to the date on time.”

A few details clicked into place. Varric stared back down into his tankard as he added them all up. He had a date with an unknown woman, but she didn’t show. Bethany had a date with an unknown man, but she arrived late. It couldn’t be...could it?

LadyS910 said she’d wear a bright blue dress. Bethany wore teal. Did that count as blue? Or was it green? Varric spent a minute of eternity pondering the question, for what he said to Bethany next hinged on his imperfect eyesight and understanding of color. A risky bet, to put it mildly. Worst case scenario, he and Bethany were the victims of the biggest coincidence of their Age, and they’d share a laugh about it. Best case scenario...well, they were still the victims of the biggest coincidence of their Age, but maybe they’d share something else.

“Were you here to meet V…” Varric dropped his voice to a whisper. “...4Vasectomy?”

Bethany looked at him like he had just slapped her across the face. “Wha—yes? How did you know?”

And so Varric’s doomed ‘date’ performed a rapid 180.

The pair soon claimed a booth with slick leather seats in the corner and ordered some glasses of wine and a fancy cheese plate to share. When their drinks arrived, Varric had to consciously stop himself from draining half of it in one go. Sunshine and LadyS being one in the same was a lot to take in. He had always possessed a soft spot for Hawke’s sweet, beautiful little sister, but they rarely spent enough time one-on-one for that soft spot to grow into much more. With LadyS, Varric had seen a whole new side of his friend—a side that was clever, darkly funny, and eager to take chances on new experiences. Meeting him in person was certainly a huge chance for Bethany to take. Varric hoped she would find the risk just as worthwhile as he did.

After the waiter delivered their cheese, Bethany nibbled a sliver of smoked gouda.

“So,” she said, “V4Vasectomy.”

“Your sister’s doing. Hawke signed me up for the app as a joke. I didn’t even know what my username was until she filled out my profile, messaged a dozen people on my behalf, and downloaded it all on my phone.” Varric chuckled and shrugged. “Somehow, one of those people was worth talking to.”

“And you had no idea LadyS was me?”

“None, and I wouldn’t have believed it if you told me. Shit, not even photographic evidence would’ve convinced me I was chatting with the genuine Milady Sunshine.”

“Well I quit showing my photos to people on that app ages ago. Every time I’ve sent someone my picture, I’ve gotten another in return.” She wrinkled her nose. “Just never of a face.”

Varric grimaced. “The male species was a mistake.”

Bethany quirked an eyebrow and brought her wine glass to her lips. “True, but my opinion of it is improving.”

There was no awkwardness between them, none of the usual first date jitters of two strangers debating whether or not to bolt out the door. Their booth was all laughter and banter, brushing fingers while they reached for the hor d'oeuvres, hiding giddy grins as they sipped their drinks. Varric’s eyes caught small details about Bethany he hadn’t never noticed before, like the curl of wispy baby hair by her ear, and the way her mouth tilted up on one side before growing into a full-fledged smile. Details that teased a treasure trove of wonderful quirks and traits he had yet to discover.

Varric leaned back against the booth and gave his wine a lazy swirl, tilting his head to one side as if in thought. There was something here, something exciting and mysterious and different, and he wanted to investigate how his worst date in recent memory transformed into an amazing evening with Bethany Hawke. However, since she was a friend, and the beloved sibling of his best buddy besides, he couldn’t let the masculine charms of his chest hair do all the talking.

“Sunshine, you didn’t expect me to be here and I didn’t expect you, but you definitely expected _somebody._ So I’ve got to ask,” he gestured towards himself with a cocky flourish of his wrist, “how did I measure up?”

There was a slight pause. Bethany nibbled on her lower lip, and then replied with a spark of mischief. “Do you mean literally? V4Vasectomy never said he was a dwarf.”

Varric snickered like a rippling firecracker. Sweet Andraste, where had sweet, innocent Sunshine hidden this sharp wit all these years? Bethany giggled as well, her cheeks growing warm and rosey in the bar’s subdued light.

“Truth is,” she said, “I just really wanted to like you, and for you to like me. I wanted our connection to be as real in person as it felt online.” Her blush deepened. “Maker, I must sound like a naive fool to you.”

“Not at all. I’m a cynic, especially about all things romance, but it’s like I told you before.” Varric reached halfway across their little table, his heart quietly jumping as Bethany glanced at his resting hand. An open invitation, if she wanted to take it. “I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t like my chances.”

With his free hand, Varric plucked his wine glass from the table and took a languid drink. Mostly to steady his nerves, but also to give Bethany a free moment to think this whole date idea over. Staring a woman down right after admitting in esoteric terms that he was into her didn’t exactly scream ‘date me’ — well, not in an enticing way.

Bethany clasped her own soft hand over his before he even set his wine glass down, her eyes sparkling in the bar’s subdued light.

“Then you measured up perfectly.”


End file.
